FORTH GO

After two delayed attempts, I got Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” installed tonight. On the first attempt I was slowed by Apple’s lame back-up application, creatively called “Backup”. It seemed to re-scan everything whenever I added or removed a folder to back-up and then tried to solve a packing optimization problem to figure out how many discs I would need. After figuring out that I needed four DVDs and preparing the staging area for them, it turns out it couldn’t write to my DVD-R discs. There are so many DVD-xyz formats, I don’t know if it’s a legitimate failure or not. The next day, I realized I could just copy the critical files to an external hard drive as a back-up. D’oh.

Finally, I was ready to install, but the installer determined (after a long scan) that the installation DVD was bad. After several retries, troubleshooting using Apple’s support web site and a web search, I realized I my DVD belonged to the “bad batch” that had been sent out. I tried to call Apple for a replacement, but their phone support was closed for the night. Today I borrowed another install DVD from Michael, and it worked fine. I also called Apple about a replacement. After 20 minutes on hold and 30 minutes with a tech support person, I think I’m getting a replacement disc sent. At least that’s what he said before the connection was inadvertantly broken on my end. BTW, that was my first call to Apple tech support in 21 years of Mac ownership.

It occurs to me that Apple has really figured out how to make money. I already pay them $100/year for .Mac, which is of little benefit, and I still have to pay $130 for a minor OS upgrade. And my previous purchase of Quicktime 6 Pro gets wiped out with Quicktime 7–not sure if I’ll get the Pro upgrade again. To top it off, my main motivation for upgrading was to get Java 1.5, which Sun gives away for free for other platforms, so I’m paying Apple for Sun’s product.